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The Journalists Went Sightseeing About Sholokhov Places

The State M.A. Sholokhov Museum-Reserve was visited by a group of journalists, the members of the press-tour organized by the Rostov Branch of the Union of Journalists of Russia with the aim of learning to know more about the life and work of the writer and discussing the subject of press informing about the Museum activity.

The press-tour members began their sightseeing about Sholokhov places in Millerovo, which the writer often visited on his way to Moscow. The town residents are proud of the great writer and thankful to him for of a new school constructed there. In the central park there is a monument to M.A. Sholokhov.

On coming to Vyoshenskaya, in the evening, the journalists put flowers to the bust of M.A. Sholokhov at the Don embankment.

Next day at the Sholokhov District Administration there was held a press-conference with the head of the District O.N. Delnov, who answered the questions mainly concerning the issues of the tourist infrastructure development, preservation of the traditional Cossack culture, protection of the natural memorials. Vasiliy Iliyich Chumakov, the Honoured Worker of Culture of Russia, the honorary resident of Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya, told about his meetings with M.A. Sholokhov. For twenty years he had been taking pictures of Sholokhov (over 2000 photonegatives are kept in the Museum funds).

The journalists visited the house, where the writer worked over his novels “And Quiet Flows the Don” and “Virgin Soil Upturned”, the estate of M.A. Sholokhov, attending the exhibition “At Hunting and Fishing”, saw the Children’s Museum Centre.

The sightseeing impressed the guests greatly, they made their entries in the Guest Book: “Thank you very much for the fine narration about the life of Sholokhov here, in this house. We have learnt much that we had not known before. It is incredibly informative and touching. The personality of Sholokhov has become more comprehensible  and clear. L. Kravchenko, the correspondent for the newspaper “Nashe Vremya”.

“We are very grateful for the wonderful, very sapid and interesting excursion. We have recollected the facts from the life of M.A. Sholokhov, learnt many new and interesting things. N. Khoroshenkaya. The Union of Journalists, Rostov-on-Don”.

“On behalf of the Rostov Branch of the Union of Journalists of Russia we thank you for the interesting and meaningful excursion – much new, very much. Astonishingly important information. Thank you!!! The member of the Federal Council of the Union of Journalists of Russia O.A. Aksyonova”.

At the information centre of the Museum-Reserve there was a meeting with A.M. Sholokhov, who spoke about the conception of the Museum development as a unique Open Air Novel, about the new exhibition projects, answered the questions of the guests.

During the dialogue the aspects of cooperation of the Museum and the Union of Journalists were discussed and specific proposals were made, in particular, about a joint work on creating videomaterials for schoolchildren, setting up the exhibition “Sholokhov is a War Correspondent”, holding a contest of publications about the life and work of the writer, Sholokhov country, the Museum-Reserve.

Then the press-tour members went to Stanitsa Karghinskaya, where M.A. Sholokhov lived in his childhood and youth. The excursion about the house, where the Sholokhovs lived in 1910-1926, the memorial classroom of the parochial school, where Misha Sholokhov studied, the mill-complex being under reconstruction now in the former estate of a merchant T.A. Karghin, gave much information about the beginning of the writer’s  work and the prototypes of Sholokhov’s books.

The talk about the stanitsa’s prospects went on in the secondary school named after the writer (Sholokhov donated his Lenin Prize for the construction of a new school), at the meeting with the head of the Bokovskiy District Y.A. Pyatikov, followed by a Cossack song group.

On the third day the guests visited the historic and literary exposition “M.A. Sholokhov. Time and Destiny”, Excursion and Exhibition Centre “The People’s House”, Souvenir Shop and the stable.

At the end of the press-tour program the guests visited Kruzhilin Village to see the exposition of the memorial house, the birthplace of the writer, his parents’ estate, a shop of Sholokhov’s father, then they went on an excursion about a Cossack farmstead with typical outbuildings and offices reconstructed according to the end XIX- beginning XX centuries. The reconstruction helps a better comprehension of a Cossack everyday life described by M.A. Sholokhov in his novel “And Quiet Flows the Don”. Just here a literary and ethnographic holiday “Autumn in Kruzhilin” took place.

Taking their leave, the journalists said that they were greatly impressed by the tour about Sholokhov sites, and they were sure to share their impressions with their readers, listeners and viewers.

We hope, owing to publications of the press-tour members, thousands of people will learn about the Museum, its scientific conferences, new exhibitions and holidays taking place here, and would like to see Sholokhov country with their own eyes. 

E. Karbysheva
O. Bakhtiyarova